A government crackdown begins today on all overhead Internet and cable TV wires on thoroughfares between Uttara and Shahbagh in the capital, with the likely disruption of the services in the next seven days and making them even costlier.

Former state minister Lutfozzaman Babar and ex-director general of National Security Intelligence Abdur Rahim were brought to Dhaka from Chittagong yesterday for quizzing on a five-day remand in two cases over the 10-truck arms haul.

In the photo caption accompanying the story 'Testing time for Forestsí, which was published on the front page yesterday, we mistakenly cited 'phayre's leaf monkey' as 'hoolock gibbons' of Lawachhara Forest.

Editorial

The observance of International Human Rights Day in Bangladesh yesterday could not have happened in sorrier circumstances. For all the fanfare associated with a celebration of the day, through seminars, symposia and the like, the fact remains that in today's Bangladesh, there is a blight which casts its shadows over the rights that citizens are morally and constitutionally entitled to enjoy. Justice Mohammad Habibur Rahman puts it in perspective for us when he notes that the executive branch of government possesses neither the skills nor the power to protect human rights. That is a severe indictment of the authorities. Add to that the fact that there is hardly any meaningful exhortation from the powers that be about the need to guarantee human rights through taking swift action against those who have continued to demonstrate a cavalier attitude to them through a systematic violation of them.

Bangladesh has a great potential and opportunity to make its mark in the world by projecting her culture through heritage shows overseas like India and Sri Lanka have been doing. This was stated at a news conference held by Bangladesh Arts Council (BAC) ahead of a heritage show last Thursday. Bangladeshi culture has a unique history of 2500 years. We have a rich heritage, full of diversity and some distinct characteristics which need to be presented in a coherent and attractive manner to the outside world.

Sports

As strong as Jamie Siddons's bullish mood was the Zimbabwe camp's assertion on ending the five-match one-day series with a win. The visitors have all to play for today as they take on the Tigers in the final game at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.

Shafiul Islam's entire international career has been within the year 2010. Whether it is the 32 wickets that landed him in No 3 among the wicket-takers this year in one-day cricket or a stunning game-changing catch or even two very expensive spells; it has all taken place in the last 12 months.

In response to coach Jamie Siddons's desire for the national team to play some more international matches before the 2011 World Cup, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) yesterday revealed that it might be possible to arrange some matches against Canada.

The Wills World Cup in 1996 provided some great entertainment and a fairytale ending with Sri Lanka triumphing. The tournament though, was not free from controversy and planning gaffes, and trouble was on the horizon even before it started. Three weeks before the Cup started, over a thousand people had been injured in a terrorist bomb in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo, one of the host cities of the World Cup.

Having brought allegations of irregularities, inability, failures as well as downgrading the standard of the sport against the current body of Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF), former national hockey players, councillors and organisers have urged the authorities concerned to dissolve the existing committee led by Khondokar Jamiluddin to form an ad-hoc committee.

Carlo Ancelotti insists Chelsea will use Sunday's crucial London derby at Tottenham to show they can emerge unscathed from the woeful run that threatens to ruin their defence of the Premier League title.

Football's Croatian coach Robert Rubcic has come close to picking his 'own' squad for the Olympic pre-qualifiers against Kuwait as a one-day trial of 56 players was held at the Birshreshtha Mostafa Kamal Stadium at Kamalapur yesterday.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) are at loggerheads over the ICC's new Future Tours Programme as the PCB claims that the Indian board is reluctant to give definite time frames for upcoming series.

Business

Big family businesses mainly shun stockmarket listing because they do not want to dilute the ownership of their hard-earned assets to others, but there are other factors at work as well, analysts said.

The head of Grameenphone has warned that the government's proposed licence-renewal scheme is so costly that the top mobile phone operator would be forced to put its investment in a high-speed cellular data network on hold for up to five years.

One of China's largest social networking companies, Oak Pacific Interactive, has hired investment banks for an initial public offering in the United States next year, the first in a rush of Chinese Facebook clones looking to list.

The comprehensive early childhood development policy and early learning and development standards (ELDS) will be incorporated in the National Child Policy which is under review now, says a press release.

National

The lone community school run by an NGO in remote Char Gangamoti, a fishermen's habitation in Kalapara upazila under Patuakhali district adjoining the Bay of Bengal, is to be closed by December this year, much to the worry of poor guardians.

Agitated supporters of the president of Awami League (AL) district unit Dewan Kamal Ahmed yesterday besieged the party office demanding lone selection of the incumbent mayor as party candidate in the upcoming mayoral election.

A mobile court in Bhurungamari upazila yesterday sentenced a stalker to six months imprisonment. The convict is Ashraful Islam Babu, 22, son of Abdul Kader of Birbaritari village under Andharirjhar union of the upazila. Police and locals said Babu used to tease Sonia Yasmin Nupur, a class-x student of Andharirjhar High School. Her mother Khodeza Khatun informed local Union Parishad (UP) Chairman Fazlul Haque Mondol of the matter on December 9. This has infuriated the stalker. Babu again teased Sonia yesterday morning while she was going to her school. He also threatened to kidnap and marry her at a convenient time. On return home, Sonia narrated the story to her mother who informed the matter to the police. Police rushed to the spot and arrested the stalker. Upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) and executive magistrate of the mobile court Hamidul Haque punished the stalker.

Two schoolgirls drowned in the Padma in Lalpur upazila of the district on Friday. They are Rini, 8, daughter of Nantu Mia of Palidoha village and Prity, 7, daughter of Panna Mia, also of the same village, police said. Both the girls were cousins and students of class one of Arambaria Government Primary School. Rini and Prity went to the Padma River for bathing, family sources said. Divers of Rajshahi fire brigade were conducting search operation as of filing of this report as 5:00pm yesterday.

A housewife, who sustained injuries by her neighbour on Wednesday, succumbed to her injuries at Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital on Friday night. The victim is Beauty Khatun, 32, wife of Babul Hossain of Tetulia village in Santhia upazila.Officer-in-charge of Santhia Police Station Md Rejaul Islam said there was a long-standing dispute between Babul and sons of his neighbour Md Fayez Uddin. When Babul's wife Beauty went to dry paddy near his residence on Wednesday, Fayez Uddin's sons Mozammel Haque, Mafiz Uddin and Wazed Ali beat up her. In a critical condition, she was taken to Pabna General Hospital and then shifted to Rajshahi Medical College and Hospital on Thursday. She died there at around 10:00 pm on Friday. Yesterday police sent the body to Pabna General Hospital morgue for autopsy.

A joint team of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) and police on Friday recovered two firearms from a passenger bus in Meherpur. Acting on a tip-off, a team of Rab-6 and Meherpur Sadar police raided a Chudanga-bound passenger bus coming from Natore at around 5:30 pm. They searched the bus, seized a small size carton and found a shutter gun and a pistol in it it. Police said the firearms were being taken to Chuadanga for sell. The matter is now under investigation, said deputy assistant director of Rab-6 Nazim Uddin.

Police on Friday arrested four leaders and activists of Meherpur district unit of Islami Shasantantra Andolon (ISA). The arrestees are Organising Secretary Rezwanul Karim and activists Rokunuzzaman, Badar Uddin and Hira Mondol. As part of their central programme, leaders and activists of the party brought out a procession in the town on Friday afternoon. When they reached the Judge's Court area at around 5:00 pm, police obstructed the ISA men and picked up four of them from the spot.

Letters

Most papers reported on 2nd December of the High Court reminding the government of its duty to preserve the Liberation War sites! It is a shame for the nation, the governments and now the Awami League, that two years on, they have done nothing towards preserving our historical sites related to our liberation struggle. Despite the writ petition in 2009, we are still ignoring our own history. One wonders why it needed a writ petition to the Hon. High Court by a few patriotic citizens, to point out to the powers that are, of this vital national duty. Was it not the duty of our politicos to do this, since they talk the most about our liberation struggle and the creation of Bangladesh? They were and are unfortunately too busy otherwise!

Almost all the countries of the world have two capitals i.e. administrative and commercial. The administrative capital of our neighbouring giant is New Delhi and the commercial capital is Mumbai. Then again, Islamabad is the administrative and Karachi is the commercial capital of Pakistan.

I am disturbed by the contrast between the frequent assurances that the racial and religious minorities in Bangladesh are treated honourably and tolerantly and the numerous examples of quite different behaviour that I have come across personally in my years here or read about in your columns - and, so far, have been silent about. These included several murders which got minimal publicity and, usually, no follow-up. On November 30th, you reported two situations, one in Aluari village, Dinajpur and another in Shyamnagar, Satkhira. Mention of the damaging of 'a church' in one of them indicates the village was Christian and in the other one, the community concerned included Hindus.

Has Begum Khaleda Zia committed any crime by living long 28 years at the cantonment house? She did not request Dhaka Cantonment Board to allot her that house. The fact is our past government/Dhaka Cantonment Board gave her the house to compensate her after the assassination of her husband President Ziaur Rahman. Begum Khaleda Zia is totally innocent. We are surprised and shocked, and we fail to understand why Begum Khaleda Zia was evicted from her house after 28 years? Why now this hue and cry about cantonment house?

Although BNP joined one or two parliament sessions, it is a matter of regret that this opposition party could not play a significant role in making the parliament effective. Besides, politics of hartal that caused huge loss to our economy has added fuel into the flame. BNP's decision of not joining the parliament has made the people frustrated. MPs of BNP can even resign any time from the parliament; they have warned the government about it. Undoubtedly, this decision is leading the whole country again to the politics of clash.

What is going on in our country? We are criticising Dr. Yunus in a way which is so shameful for the nation. Dr. Yunus achieved the Nobel Prize for his role in eradicating poverty. He introduced microcredit to the world. It is a widely accepted theory and acknowledged by the world famous economists. He established his theory through his works. But we did not stand behind him, rather we criticised his getting the Nobel Prize. I felt so bad when I saw a procession coming out of Dhaka University shouting slogans against Dr. Yunus. Our PM also commented on the incident and demanded proper investigation into the matter which was unfortunate.

One cannot get the actual stories behind the news by reading Bangladeshi dailies, especially the Bangla dailies. For example, most Bangla dailies carried the news of shifting Khaleda Zia's household belongings under big headlines. This is not a big news for the nation. The story behind this news is very simple. Begum Zia has lost her legal battle and she is vacating the cantonment house. Of course, she deserves some notice from the media, but not this big coverage.

While I was in Bangladesh a few weeks ago, I went to my village where I grew up. In our village, there were almost 50 60 Hindu families in 1971 and now there are only seven families left. More shocking is that these remaining families are now the poorest of all. Most of them once had agricultural land, were relatively affluent, but now landless.

Ragging is a nasty manifestation of popular culture. But what will be accomplished by assigning new police functions to school or college administrations? A look at child rearing in Bangladesh will reveal the roots of ragging. Girls appear to have lesser scope or opportunity for anti-social behaviour. But in the case of boys, a great deal is overlooked by parents. Even in school, a parent is offended by reports of anti-social behaviour by his son. Perhaps training children for adulthood has to start much earlier. It is difficult to overlook the fact that ragging is cultural in its origins.

Custodial deaths and extra judicial killings have made our law enforcing agencies controversial. Last year as many as 90 people died in custody. Very recently 17-year-old Sagor died in police custody. His family alleged that he died due to torture by the cops. Astonishingly, we are observing such deaths one after another. Besides, the police show their disgust to file cases in these connections. Thus, these deaths go uninvestigated.

The American diplomacy sustained a serious jolt following disclosure of a huge volume of classified government documents by the Wikileaks. This disclosure has put the entire world into a chaotic and confusing situation.

The daily Prothom Alo has published a report on the Health Bulltin-2010 of Health Directorate on 27th November 2010. Cardiovascular diseases have been identified as the number one cause of patients' death in the country in the report. And the people aged between 25 to 49 years die mainly of these diseases. The age group shown in the report who are vulnerable to cardiac diseases is the most productive and income generating group in the family. Generally, the doctors say that hypertension, stress, anxiety, food habit etc. are the main causes of cardiovascular diseases.

We have seen an example of objective and responsible reporting from The Daily Star on December 3. A foreign media circulated a story of fund transfer from Grameen Bank to a sister organisation Grameen Kalyan. Using this as a source the media at home made a news story on December 2 that created undue sensation in society. The news story created disturbance in the minds of the readers. Some of them, who take pride in the performance of Grameen Bank and its winning of the Nobel Peace Prize, were shocked at the allegations.

A group of Somali pirates reportedly hijacked a Bangladesh-flagged ship in the Arabian Sea off the coast of India recently. The fate of 26 abductees remained unknown. The government and the naval force couldn't do anything to rescue the ship. Some days have passed, and now the debate has turned into who hijacked the ship. This is really frustrating. The government should do something very quickly to recover the ship from the hijackers.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao faces a tough task when he arrives in India next week to allay New Delhi's fears over China's rise as a global power, and to smooth tensions in an often-fractious relationship.

Fifteen Afghan civilians died when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan and seven road construction company employees were killed in an air strike in an eastern province, authorities said yesterday.

General David Petraeus, the top US military commander in Afghanistan, has been named the "most fascinating person of 2010", beating the cast of MTV reality show "The Jersey Shore" and teen singer Justin Bieber.

Arts & Entertainment

To mark Universal Human Rights Day 2010 as well as to generate awareness against violation of basic human rights, Manusher Jonno Foundation in association with UKaid and Royal Norwegian Embassy in Bangladesh organised an award giving ceremony and a music festival on December 10 at the Mall Chattar on Dhaka University campus.

All roads led to Army Stadium as the decked out stage was all set to welcome the 'King of Bollywood' Shahrukh Khan on December 10. Countless die-hard fans of the 'Bollywood Badshah' waited with bated breath to catch a glimpse of their favourite 'hero'.

OP-ED

The extraordinary news of the hijacking of Bangladeshi ship MV Jahan Moni, belonging to Brave Royal Ship Management, has shocked us. The merchant ship was carrying nickel and was sailing from Indonesia to Greece after refueling at Singapore. According to reports, a group of pirates attacked the bulk carrier off the Indian port of Cochin on the afternoon of December 5, and it was last seen by satellites to be heading towards the Somali coast. Twenty-six Bangladeshi are on board, of which twenty-five are crew members and one lady, who is the spouse of the chief engineer.

The first-ever South Asia regional conference on early childhood development (ECD) ended in Dhaka on December 9. The three day meeting at the Bangabandhu International Centre was attended by four hundred people, including over a hundred academics, researchers and practitioners from all the South Asian countries and renowned experts from USA, UK, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. The Bangladesh ECD Network (BEN) and the Asia-Pacific Regional Network on Early Childhood (ARNEC) jointly hosted the South Asian Conference.

Several economists have been arguing for sustainable economic development which takes care of the natural resources and can ensure intergenerational equity since the 1960s, though it was not until the 1970s that an international environmental policy was thought of at the policy level.

The last two years of the Awami League government have been a mixed bag of hopes and dashed expectations. It is true that no one takes the aposhheen netri seriously when she heaps ludicrous allegations like economic stagnation and "selling" of the country to a "foreign power" upon the incumbent government. But when she talks about the rent seeking of the student and the youth wings of the Awami League, inability of the government to control the price of essentials, the stagnation in the ministries, she will certainly come across some consenting nods. That too, from people who have not been known to be admirers of the BNP.

Airline traffic rises as business travellers return to the skies," a news report said. It's true. Despite all our pleadings on behalf of the environment, thousands of business people are once more being assigned to take long journeys for short meetings.